Eight-year-old Zion Harvey recently became the youngest person to receive a bilateral hand transplant. A 40-person medical team, with surgeons from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and colleagues from Penn Medicine, joined together to perform the surgery. After more than 10 hours, the team successfully transplanted donor hands and forearms.
Zion contracted sepsis when he was 2 years old, resulting in amputations of both his hands and legs below the knee. Earlier this month, he received the transplant, though it was not disclosed until recently. To prevent his body from rejecting his new limbs, Zion now receives daily medications. He is expected to spend several more weeks in rehabilitation before going back home to Baltimore, Maryland.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia released the following video documenting Zion's procedure.